I didn't expect this either!

Ace was a very naughty boy today and really did try to buck me off. He didn't succeed, he got belted,  and I got a nice canter out of him and stopped. I hope this stupid behaviour ends soon, I am sick of it. If it was not for the fact that he works perfectly in one half of the arena but not the other, I would have him checked out physically. But his work at one end is so good that I don't feel that there is any possibility that this is anything but a mental issue. Today I have moved the blue barrels out around the arena and there are now four places where he can pick a fight with me over them. It will be interesting to see what he does at his original spookspot and whether he starts again with the barrels where they are now.

Radar has had a day off but he has been lovely and cuddly today. So it was not having three horses that made him stand-offish in the past. It was having Jazz. He was such a trouble-maker, that boy!

Windy is doing exceptionally well. The herd is quiet and settled and Radar really likes him and will already share food with him. Ace has also accepted him and is quiet and calm in the field.

The real news today was the shoulder stretches! Thankyou Jean, for putting that idea into my head. I picked up a front leg and pulled it forwards, and long before any normal horse would object he was hopping backwards. The other leg was even worse. He has some seriously tensed up muscles inside his shoulders, which would completely explain how tightly he moves in front even though he seems fine on his feet. I repeated the exercise to do three stretches on each leg, which is what my own physio has me do on my bad achilles and hamstrings. He was much more flexible by the third one.

Then I lunged him, and the improvement in his front end action is already enormous, though there is a lot more to come. His upright pasterns are beginning to drop as he is happier to place weight down into his heels, and I hope that will be matched by a reduction in angle in his shoulder as we free those up in the next few weeks.

I could swear that he has a lot more concavity in his front feet already. And that may be due to two things at the same time. He is a bit porky and has an "insulin crest" which is reducing as the goodness goes out of the grass in this horribly cold weather. And he is on copper supplementation, which helps regulate insulin and had the same effect of increasing concavity in Jazz.  And  as I'm sure Tracey will confirm, it really can happen that quick, that laminae stop stretching and start to hold the pedal bone higher in the foot.  I have seen it before and been stunned by it.

This is probably the most peaceful introduction to an established pair of boisterous horses I have ever known. I hope it continues. Windy is proving to be very self-sufficient and quite happy to leave the other two in the barn and wander out into the field first, whereupon the other two follow to make sure he is not getting something they don't have.  He's an interesting character. I don't think he's a leader, but he is certainly no shrinking violet either, while also being a total pacifist. Nice combination!!

C